Developed and published by Tampered Evidence, The Ditty of Carmeana is a parody of action-adventure and other video games, especially The Legend of Zelda. It spoofs many of the clichés and weird situations that occur in video games.
The full game was released in 2022 on Steam for Windows and can be found here
. A playable demo from 2014 can be downloaded here.
Note: The player is asked to type in the Hero's name, but regardless of how it's spelled, it's pronounced "Lance". We will just spell it "Lance" in the trope listings.
Warning: Spoilers are not marked in the trope listing. Read at your own risk.
The Ditty of Carmeana provides examples of the following tropes:
- American Gothic Couple: They appear as NPCs (with creepily happy faces) and are Lance's parents.
- Anachronism Stew: The game is ostensibly set in medieval times but shamelessly throws in modern culture and technology, including a basketball player in full uniform, characters from a Grant Wood painting from 1930, and a credit card.
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Once you obtain a credit card, you can buy as much of anything in the game as you want.
- But Thou Must!:
- After Lance talks to Mrs. Perry about her new invention, the refrigerator, he says that he should take it with him. If he tries to run away without taking the refrigerator, he will walk back to it, face the player, and say, "I said, 'I think I should take it with me'."
- If Lance tells Corporal Howser that he doesn't want to join the Army, Tabitha will berate him until he accedes.note
- Cap: Lance is not capable of carrying more than ten frequent flyer miles unless he buys a money bag that can hold 500 miles from the General Store (which, of course, costs 11 miles). This, despite the fact that he can carry a whole refrigerator in his pocket.
- Cave Behind the Falls: There is a waterfall in Borringshire, behind which is a cave containting an Inexplicable Treasure Chest. A cut scene preceding this parodies how there always seems to be a treasure behind the waterfall.
- Cyanide Pill: An item you can buy in the General Store is JJ's Fruit-Aid, which kills you if you drink it.
- Exposition Break: While talking to Uncle Stoopnixie, a Cut Scene occurs to explain how Lance and Tabitha met (ten minutes ago).
- Face Plant: During a bonus Cut Scene. As Lance charges out on his Glorious Quest to Rescue the Princess, he trips over a rock and faceplants into the ground.
- Fictional Currency: The de facto unit of currency is the frequent-flyer mile.
- Flyover Country: Lance's home is called "Flyover Province of Borringshire" by the opening narrator.
- The Grim Reaper: Appears in a cut scene in an Afterlife Antechamber the first time Lance dies. Has an unusual look for Death.
- Hippie Van: The "chariot" that carries Lance's soul back to Earth when he continues looks like a VW Bus.
- Hold Up Your Score: There's a wall in the game that Lance will vault over rather than just jumping. A few seconds after that, the game will flash Olympic scoring results for the jump.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Lance carries a refrigerator around in his pocket.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Several, including one in a gazebo in town that hasn't been opened in years.
- Pamphlet Shelf: Played with. The Borrington Library is actually a small table with a few books on it inside the Gymnasium.
- Save the Princess: The object of the game (though you never get close to it in the demo). The phrase "Rescue the Princess" is marked with a trademark sign everywhere it appears in the game, even in the captions.
- Shooting Gallery: There's a bonus shooting gallery where the object is not to hit the target, but to miss the target.
- Shout-Out:
- Lance's parents are the two farmers from Grant Wood's painting American Gothic.
- The jars located around Borrington look exactly like the jars in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and contain artifacts from other video games and MacGuffins from various movies.
- One item in the game is called Galileean Sandals, which let you walk on water.
- The chamber where Lance wakes up after he dies is Number 14.
- During a Cut Scene, Lance is able to make a fairy who was chasing Tabitha to make her buy Facebook stock cough up and die by saying, "I don't believe in fairies".
- King Telcar's headdress is a low-poly version of the King of All Cosmos's headdress. He personally doesn't like the "stupid thing" and avoids wearing it outside of formal occasions.
- Sidekick Creature Nuisance: Tabitha is deliberately designed to be one, parodying Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. At one point she says, "Hey! Listen!"
- Significant Anagram: Quite a few, it seems to be a source of a lot of names. Examples:
- Tito Raul, the gym teacher, is an anagram of "tutorial".
- Stoopnixie is an anagram of "exposition".
- Bowtudgel, the name of the kingdom where the game takes place, is an anagram of "low budget".
- Super Drowning Skills: Lance can't swim and he drowns if he jumps into deep water.
- Tradesnark™: Video game clichés such as "Rescue the Princess" are trademarked, even in the captions.
- Unlockable Content: The demo unlocks the town gates and the shooting gallery when you "beat" it.
- Useless Item:
- The jars around town contain "artifacts", which are items that the game describes as useless except to sell or for alchemy, neither of which are found in the demo.
- Most of the items you can buy in stores are useless. Also the Refrigerator and the Banskerian Cap.
- In the demo, all weapons you can find or buy are useless since there are no enemies.
- Walk on Water: You can walk on water after you've obtained the Galileean sandals.
- You All Look Familiar: Many of the NPCs use the same character models.
